A Disappointment: Studio Fix Salon by Alex Carbonell

This is a copy of my complaint letter addressed to Studio Fix Salon. ​

On Aug 5 and 6, ​I emailed this letter to both studiofix@fixsalon.com and bench@benchtm.com (my mail to the former - which is the official email of the salon on the company card - bounced back twice, and I received no reply from the latter) and messaged the facebook pages of Bench Fix Community, Studio Fix Salon by Alex Carbonell, and copied L'Oreal Professionel Philippines about this issue​. No one has gotten back to me yet. I have not called the phone line (+632 5013062 / +632 501 3064 / mobile +639275767698) since I am in Australia and cannot afford to pay the charges I may incur for filing a complaint. 

I've decided to post my letter here, in the hope that I can get a response about my complaint, and also to inform the readers about the disappointing experience. ​While I understand that it's possible that the Studio Fix team has probably not read my letter yet, I think it's plain annoying that I can't get in touch with anyone about it even if there are so many channels for communication available online. 

Bottom line?​ My hair sucks right now and I'm mightily pissed about it.  

(Oh, I'm Tracy --- Dawn's, uh, real sister).

- - -

Unedited, under sunlight. Horrible, huh?

Studio Fix Salon by Alex Carbonell 

G​reenbelt 5 

Hello, 

My name is Tracy, and I am writing to you about my experience in your salon, and hopefully you can do something about my concern. 

On July 28 2013 (Sunday), I went to your salon at 12nn for steambond, full color, and haircut. I left the place at around 7 pm. The persons who serviced me are Hermes, Lovely, and Eman. I paid PhP 11, 850 for everything. 

History: I had my steambond last February before I left for Australia as part of the L'oreal launch. I blogged about the experience in my sister's site and gave a splendid review. Hermes told me that my blog entry led to more people to try his service at Studio Fix and promoted your salon. 

Link: http://peachypinksisters.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/loreal-professionnel-x-bench-fix-salon.html 

Since I went on vacation last month, I decided to get my hair done again. However, the result's a disaster. Even the previously uncolored and unrebonded parts are now horrible. The ends are very dry - to think I've had more than 3 inches cut off when I went to Studio Fix! And even if the color is darker now, my hair still looks very damaged. I have been using the Schwarzkopf Ultimate Elixir Line to repair the damage this entire week, but to no avail.

Link: http://www.schwarzkopf.com.au/skau/en/home/hair_care/care-products/ultimate-oil-elixir.html 

Please see the pictures of my hair, all taken in sunlight --- straw-like, very dry, scratchy, and rough. This is after shampooing, conditioning, and using the mask and the elixir. 

My hair is very thick and frankly not in a very good condition when I started. But I think it is in an even worse state now --- too overprocessed. It's quite upsetting. I find it very difficult to style. 

While I think the service is great (Hermes, Lovely, and Eman are really caring and nice), I'm really disappointed with the result. I am now back in Australia, and will return to the Philippines December 23. 

I hope you can offer a response to this, especially since I have paid a lot of money and trusted your team that the results will be good. I also want to keep our blog readers' trust by being honest about the service. 

Looking forward to your reply. 

Thank you, 

Tracy

UPDATE! -- The issue has been resolved! Read all about it here:
http://peachypinksisters.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-fair-and-generous-fix.html

L'Oreal Professionnel x Bench Fix Salon Steambond

Hi everyone!

I’m Tracy, Dawn’s sister, and I’m one lucky gal.

Why? A week ago, Dawn kindly offered me the privilege of trying out the new Steambond service by L’oreal Professionel on behalf of PeachyPinkSisters. The deal is, I get beautiful, freshly rebonded hair for free with the help of fabulous new technology --- all I have to do in return is to blog about it!

And since this one’s all the rage in beauty blogs out there, here’s my blow-by-blow account of the entire experience, made crisp and easy to follow:

1.     [Previous] State of Affairs

·      My hair’s very thick, very black, big and wavy.

                          ·      I’ve been having my hair rebonded and colored the past six or seven years, and usually every six months (with Weng from Affanscinante, and Rich from Azta Urban Salon in SM San Lazaro). Such is life for the vain.

·      --- But 2012 proved to be different when I transferred and lived in Sydney for a year. I only had my hair colored twice and cut once in my entire stay there (Why? Incredibly expensive). The top half of my hair is then rebond-free, and the bottom half too chemically processed for my hair’s own good.

·      In the first week of January, I went to Azta Urban Salon in SM San Lazaro for L’oreal Extenso Rebonding and Ombre Coloring Service. I sat on the salon chair for almost eight hours and paid a whopping PhP 10, 200 for both services.

·      The color’s excellently done and really looks good in pictures, but the rebonding part was a mess. The middle part of my long thick hair had waves, and the bleached ends were a complete disaster. Queue in a sad face.

·      Went back to Azta salon a week later. Got Permanent Blowdry done (for free, so that’s nice of Miss Rich) on the lower half. Although this helped mask the damage, my hair was still really rough and difficult to manage.

·      I was planning to go back to have it analyzed and treated again, but then Dawn received an email from Mikki Galang about the Steampod Service, and I was eager to experiment with this one for a change.

2.     The Steampod

·      This technology is a collaboration between L’oreal Professionel and Rowenta. You can either get a Keratin Steam Care Service (a treatment that makes your hair super nice temporarily for three days, and healthier in the long run) and a Keratin Steam Bond Service (a process that makes hair straight and shiny, and all that jazz we Filipinas are familiar with).

·      Keratin Steam Bond - a hair revolution? Maybe. But it doesn’t strike me as all that grand. It’s still the same rebonding process, anyway. The difference, simply put, is that there’s steam that comes out of the hair iron. This, I guess, buffers the hair from the heat and damage and all, and ensures that there’s moisture in the air (and in your hair) during the ironing process. Makes sense to me.

·      According to the wonderful Hermes Mondido (of Studio Fix Salon by Alex Carbonell, Greenbelt 5), who took care of me that day, the water in the hair iron is just tap water. The rebonding formula is still L’oreal Extenso. Hence, the rebonding technique – the meticulousness of and patience in ironing, the timing, the knowledge of the stylist – matters heavily.

3.     The Experience

·      I explained my hair condition ad nauseam to Hermes and his team. They decided that I could still get my hair steam-bonded, but they were very careful about how long the medicine stayed on my hair and ensured that I had my hair properly treated with keratin (at least, the parts that were at the brink of death).

·      Everything was over after 3 and a half hours --- guessing because this was more of a “repair” of a botched-up rebonding than a full-on rebonding service (the usual time frame is 6 hours).

·      Mythic Oil was used as a finishing touch. I am not sure how necessary it is, but it made my hair smellnice.

4.     The Result?

·      No more waves! Hair looks healthier than ever. The color’s more vibrant now too, since my hair is smoother and straighter.

·      Ends seem partially treated, but after shampooing and conditioning with the L’oreal Extenso range, they still went back to their horrible state. I guess there’s not much you can do when hair’s really damaged except to have them cut. But the middle part’s fab.

5.     Follow-up

·      Went back to Hermes at Studio Fix today and had the ends snipped and shaped. I have shorter hair now, but no more dry ends. Even if I prefer my hair long (and I intend to make it grow), my family says the cut makes me look better too.

·      Good end on my last week here in Manila! Pretty hair for Sydney in 2013.

Cheers!

[Hair Rebond] Affascinante Salon Once Again!

Hello girls! 

Got my hair rebonded for the 3rd time at Affascinante Salon, c/o Ms. Weng and her wonderful staff (new faces, but same happy enthusiasm). Read about my old post here.

I came by last Tuesday. My hair's in pretty bad shape for two reasons:

• Since December, I have had colored it at home three times (because it grows really fast!). The shade I'm sporting now is Hortaleza Professional's Light Beech Blonde + 12% oxidizing lotion from HBC.
• I just came from the beach, and went sunning and tanning in full glory!

Lovely lazy shot, but super dry mane! Ack!

Even Ms. Weng was shocked at how sad the state of my hair was. So as usual, she was very meticulous all the way, monitoring the length of time the chemicals stayed on my hair, because the strands were so porous that they just "drank" everything. I was advised not to get my hair regrowth colored yet until June. I could feel that Weng was a bit sad that my hair's not as good as it used to be (I became ashamed too for not taking care of it) and I was touched about that. Oh my. 

I am aware that the ends are frazzled, but trust me: this actually looks good compared to how I looked before. I paid PhP 2, 700 (inclusive of the treatment and the tips) because I'm her suki --- aside from hair rebonding, I've tried her other services as well, such as cut, color and super intensive hair treatments in the past. =)

Sure, I have been tempted to stray and try new salons, but I guess I am sticking with Affascinante. I feel that Ms. Weng really establishes a well-informed, honest and sincere relationship with her clients. Plus, I think I'm "hiyang" with the rebonding formula being used --- not too harsh!

That's all for now.

Cheers!

Trace

Affascinante Salon Case # 1: Trace's hair is straight and short!

Trace writes: 

I've had my hair long for almost five years now, and have had it rebonded for five years through home service. I noticed that Ah Glow! - the rebonding formula used by the person who did my hair - made my hair dry and frizzy eventually. So as much as I like my friend, I had to switch to a different experience. For the record, my natural hair is very thick and thick-stranded. It has survived a lot of pain and damage from straightening, relaxing, *unsuccessful* coloring, perming, etc. LOL.

I decided to troop to Affascinante Salon with my sister (see yesterday's post) and meet Weng Sanchez. She and her team have gotten a lot of rave reviews @ Girltalk. Plus, thermic rebonding costs only PhP 2, 500 for all hair lengths until July 15 2010! 

This is the before shot (BIG AND WAVY, I know):

My experience: I talked to Weng and she assured me that her formula will not damage my hair, now or in the future. I opted for thermic instead of silicone rebonding, which, according to Weng, just makes hair shinier but would cost me a thousand pesos more. I did not think I would need more shine, seeing that the new regrowth is already healthy. If my hair weren't so darn wavy and unmanageable, I would have preferred it that way. But alas, one cannot be that lucky. 

She started by cutting my hair into a bob after she told me how to manage the cut - although it needs more maintenance than layered hair (since the ends will flyaway since they touch the shoulders), it's more bagay for me. Then the usual rebonding process - rebonding formula, then rinse, then protein spray, then ironing, then formula, then rinse, then treatment (yes, she even gave me a free treatment - a minty keratin mask, I think), then rinse and blowdry! Took me 7-8 hours, good thing the staff's really friendly, and we got to watch movies and eat some bread and had 3 glasses of iced tea. After the salon visit, my siblings and I had dinner at Aveneto and my brother told me I looked really good!

This is the result after washing and drying:

Outcome: Washing it after 3 days, my hair's all straight again! Yey! My hair looks super shiny, as well. I have a haircut problem though - the ends are flicking already since they're on the shoulder level. I guess I need to get it cut again, since I hate ironing! :( But hey, at least I've gotten a total of 9 compliments already about how young I look!

Tips: Call for an appointment. The salon's members always take their time per client, so it's not for the impatient. And hope and pray the DVD is not Jennifer Lopez's The Backup Plan (2010) because that is the worst movie I've ever seen in the last 5 years.

SALON DETAILS: AFFASCINANTE SALON

ADDRESS: Royal World Mansion Bldg. Pablo Ocampo (formerly Vito Cruz) corner Enrique Street, Manila. Near St. Scholasticas College. Also Near Becky's Kitchen. If you see the signage of Zonetech Bar along Pablo Ocampo (Vito Cruz), Affascinante is pretty near and you've found it!

PHONE: 3458815 / 09239574020 / 09273171776

ONLINE LINKS: MULTIPLY and FACEBOOK

WATCH OUT FOR MY 

SISTER DAWN'S POST! :)